For first-time founders, picking the right VC is about more than just securing funding. The best investors provide real hands-on support, helping with everything from hiring and go-to-market strategy to design and fundraising prep. This article breaks down what value-add looks like and how to spot VCs who offer it, no matter their size or brand.

We were skeptical when CoreWeave IPO’d: high debt, heavy reliance on Microsoft, and a fragile business model. But since then, the stock has surged 250%, they’ve closed a $2B unsecured debt deal, and rapidly integrated Weights & Biases to build a full-stack AI platform. Key risks remain, but the strategic pivot is real—and the market is starting to believe it.

Disclosure: Not investment advice. Do your own due diligence.

Salesforce’s $8B acquisition of Informatica marks a bold step to own the enterprise data stack in the AI era. By adding best-in-class data integration, governance, and MDM tools, Salesforce fills a critical gap in its platform and strengthens its AI infrastructure. The move positions Salesforce to unify CRM data with broader enterprise data, enabling cleaner, more trusted insights and AI-driven actions across its ecosystem.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) lets companies invest in startups using their own balance sheet to gain strategic insights and financial returns. It offers a cost-effective way to access new tech, explore markets, and build M&A pipelines without heavy R&D. Firms with CVC arms often outperform peers by staying closer to innovation, turning idle capital into a growth engine.

Limited partners (LPs) are often seen as passive capital providers, but the most effective ones contribute more. From strategic insight and customer introductions to operational support and long-term alignment, value-add LPs are becoming essential partners to both venture funds and the startups they back.

Google is at a strategic crossroads as AI-native tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity begin to erode its long-standing dominance in search. With declining Safari search traffic and a $100B market cap swing, Google next move is uncertain. Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma is playing out in real time, forcing Google to choose between protecting its high-margin core business or pivot and leverage it’s massive $75B capex into AI infrastructure.

Unit economics are core to startup viability, revealing whether each customer brings the business towards profitability or burns cash. Metrics like CAC, LTV, gross margin, and payback period offer a clear view into business health and scalability. This piece breaks down how investors assess unit economics from pre-seed to growth, and why expectations differ between SaaS and other verticals.

In today’s market, growth alone isn’t enough. Investors want to understand how efficiently that growth is achieved and whether the business can scale without burning through runway too quickly. Metrics like Rule of 40, Burn Multiple, and CAC Payback help founders tell that story, showing not just how fast they’re growing but how disciplined and sustainable that growth really is. Capital efficiency has become one of the strongest signals that a startup is built to endure.

Retention is a critical signal of product-market fit and long-term growth potential. Metrics like net dollar retention, gross dollar retention, LTV/CAC, CAC payback, and DAU/MAU help quantify how well a startup holds and grows its customer base. Cohort analysis adds depth by showing how user behaviour changes over time and across segments. Together, these tools help founders and investors understand the true durability of a business.

OpenAI’s $40B raise at a $300B valuation, led by SoftBank and Microsoft, marks the largest private tech deal ever and cements AI as foundational infrastructure. The capital will fuel massive compute expansion via the Stargate JV and scale enterprise adoption of ChatGPT. While institutional investors are all-in, SoftBank’s stock drop reflects concerns over execution and capital intensity.

CoreWeave’s $27B valuation hinges on a fragile GPU arbitrage model propped up by debt, with 62% of revenue coming from Microsoft, a customer likely to walk once its own infrastructure scales. Without diversified demand, better margins, and stronger financial controls, CoreWeave looks more like a well-financed stopgap than a sustainable AI infrastructure giant.

Wiz’s $32 billion acquisition by Google marks one of the largest venture-backed deals in history—but just a year ago, they turned down a $23 billion offer. Their decision to hold out reflects a broader resurgence in tech M&A, signalling renewed investor confidence and a shifting regulatory landscape.